Name-calling
by Emeliore
Summary: All's good and well in our favorite Potions Master's classroom, until something breaks the rigid code of silence in his classroom. Our dear Potions Master a hapless victim of implications...


A/N: As this is my first time to write a fic, please R/R! Flames (well, I don't expect any but what the heck) cannot be stopped and will be ignored unless they prve to be constructive criticisms.  
  
Next in line for the focus of my fic would be Remus Lupin...  
  
  
DISCLAIMER: Of course I don't own Severus Snape. Never did. I would love him to be in my possession, though.   
  
---  
Name-calling  
  
Severus Snape sat on his desk, his chin resting on his intertwined fingers. In front of him his students were mixing their Divining Potion, and he let his eyes gaze at them passively.   
  
As to be expected, all worked silently. The students learnt the hard way that to assume NOT to do something irrelevant was being safe indeed; and Severus himself reinforced that idea quite beautifully.  
  
It was a slow day actually. Severus straightened his posture, letting his fingers softly tap-tapping on the front desk. It eventually served as a guiding tempo to the students at the front row who could hear the soft, insinuating sound; Severus chuckled derisively at that.  
  
These are the people even a weakly forced Imperius curse could control without them knowing it...  
  
True enough, the front-row students found themselves working at a certain speed that they could not pinpoint as to why they even did.  
  
His fingers never lost the beat; Severus had already begun to lose concentration; eventually becoming lost in his thoughts when he heard soething that severely broke the rigid code of classroom conduct...  
  
Giggling.  
  
His sights quickly flew to the direction of the source of the offending sound. It had come from the Gryffindor table...no, between the Gryffindor AND Slytherin tables. Severus' tapping had ceased, and he did not let himself rise from the table until the front row broke from the spell of his tapping.  
  
To the people who knew Professor Severus Snape, they know that he almost always made sure that all students would notice what he was about to do, in order to make an imprint into their 'sodding rotten brains' as he himself would put it.  
  
Quietly he walked around the working tables, stopping behind the backs of the two who had desecrated his law of utter silence. The guilty Gryffindor noticed the shadow, and looking up, saw her feared Professor Snape behind her, arms crossed and looking down both at her and her unlikely Slytherin partner. She sobered up and elbowed the Slytherin, who quieted herself likewise.  
  
"What," Severus enunciated in his soft, steely voice, "have you two been up to?"  
  
The two students said nothing, obviously petrified.  
  
"I'm. Waiting." Beneath the surface of his cool exterior it may be said that he was actually becoming impatient, and an ACTUAL impatient Professor Severus Snape is a very dangerous thing to have indeed.  
  
"Uh..." The Gryffindor mumbled, twirling an errant strand of her hair nervously, until the Slytherin continued for her.   
  
"Professor," the Slytherin DARED to speak to him in such clear tones (for it is a known fact that somehow Snape favored his own house before the other three, which he tried his very best to deduct points from), "we were just wondering...uh, I, rather... (this elicited a raising of an eyebrow from Professor Snape) why you...you're not called 'Master' Snape instead of Professor, what with your title of Potions Master and, well..." Her voice trailed off.  
  
Snape let out a derisive sneer. "Well what? Miss Zinfandel?"  
  
After a few moments of silence came the answer. "Your reputation...calls for it."  
  
Silence from the Potions Master.  
  
The Gryffindor volunteered another bit, futilely trying to drag the Slytherin and herself from the muck they put themselves in. "We also notice that, er, no one else had the word 'master' tagged into their title. Well, except for Headmaster Dumbledore."  
  
It didn't help. Severus' calm exterior betrayed nothing of his reaction.  
  
After an uncomfortable long moment of silence, Severus Snape bent down until his face was very near the Slytherin student named Zinfandel, until their breaths mingled.  
  
"10 points from Gryffindor for giggling in my class," he said, a remark which got a grimace from the Slytherin, obviously guilty at the fact that only the Gryffindor house had their points deducted, though it was a well known fact that Professor Snape never deducted points from his own.  
  
Just as the Slytherin thought that she will come out of the mess unscathed, she got another thing coming.  
  
"And you, Miss Zinfandel, are to call me 'Master Snape' from now on, and will do so clearly that the others will hear , since you are obviously concerned about the matter."  
  
"Yes, Professor-"  
  
"What, Miss Zinfandel?"  
  
"Yes, MASTER Snape," Zinfandel said surprisingly clearly, much to the chagrin of the Gryffindor partner. The other Slytherins sniggered snidely at what they heard...  
  
***  
  
Zinfandel and Tzigane stared at their Professor (who had, again, lost himself to his mind-numbing tapping) from their desk. Tzigane was frowning and murmured, "That slimy git-- 10 points? He didn't even care taking points from YOUR house when all of you laughed,"  
  
"Aw, come off it. He DID give us a favor." The Slytherin said, grinning. She noticed that Tzigane did not understand her.  
  
"Master Snape." She said, her tongue obviously relishing the words.  
  
"Eh?" The Gryffindor stared at her friend, frowning.  
  
"'Tis a good thing he already wears black," Zinfandel hinted. Her cheeks were slightly flushed, an indication that her thoughts then were not exactly pure.  
  
"Ah." Comprehension dawned upon Tzigane. "Pervert," she said, finally getting it.  
  
But the both of them knew that the image they had conjured of Professor Snape was very, very beffiting of him indeed.  
  
***  
  
"What is it this time?" Professor Snape mumbled as he heard the irritating laughter again.  
  
Perhaps, he never knew that two of his 'sodding' students were undressing him in their thoughts.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
----  
  
R/R Please, as this is my first fic! 


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